Groundbreaking for Emerging Pathogens Facility - February 27, 2008
If you are like me, you submitted to the annual flu shot earlier this winter, confident of protection against a week of fevers and muscle aches.
Unfortunately, your confidence may have been misplaced. With at least 44 states already reporting widespread outbreaks, the vaccine is proving less effective than usual. The Centers for Disease Control has estimated it only protects against half of this year's flu viruses.
This has occurred because, under the current system, experts make their best guess of the most likely strains to affect the U.S. at least six months in advance. The early action is needed to give vaccine makers time to manufacture millions of doses. Unfortunately for us, it appears the experts guessed wrong this year. The result goes beyond inconvenience: Flu causes 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths each year.
I bring this up because it goes to the heart of why we are gathered here today.
Whether viral or bacterial in nature, new or evolving diseases like the flu pose a growing threat to human health – and to the animals and plants on which we depend for sustenance. The Emerging Pathogens Institute, to be based in the Pathogens Research Facility that will rise here on this spot, is the University of Florida's answer to this threat.
Before the dirt flies, I think it's reasonable to ask, why create this institute in Florida? And, why at the University of Florida?
The answer is simple. Although emerging pathogens constitute a global problem, Florida and its 17-million plus residents, are uniquely vulnerable among U.S. states. And, the University of Florida, with its diversity of strong research programs in veterinary medicine, human medicine, agriculture, engineering and other areas, is in the pole position to make the research-based gains we must make to combat this threat.
I want to credit Dr. Richard Moyer with the idea for the Institute. Dr. Moyer was an early advocate of the notion that the same things that make Florida an attractive destination for people also do so for the bugs that prey on us.
Florida's warm, humid climate serves as a kind of state-sized Petri dish for unwanted viruses and bacteria. Eighty million tourists, and multimillion dollar import and export industries, provide abundant opportunities for less welcome visitors to establish toeholds. It doesn't help that the Sunshine State is also a key stopover for millions of migratory birds and the interlopers tucked into their feathers or beaks.
We have already seen what can happen. Norwalk virus has turned pleasure cruises into anything but. Citrus canker nearly wrung the state's citrus industry dry. Eastern equine encephalitis pops up with uncomfortable frequency. And, these diseases are just the scum on a very deep pool: Worldwide, some 175 infectious species are considered emerging, 75 percent transmissible from animal to humans.
Since September 11, 2001, much of the work on emerging pathogens in the university research community has understandably centered on bioterrorism agents. The Emerging Pathogens Institute is virtually alone nationwide in its charter to address more basic, broader questions that bridge not only diseases, but also disciplines.
It is not called the "Anthrax Institute" or the "Botulism Institute" for a reason. Our institute will seek the commonalities in why pathogens emerge and how they spread. That is critical because by the time an epidemic happens, it's usually too late.
The Pathogens Research Facility will serve our purpose well.
Its 80,000 square feet will have 16 labs rated at Biosafety Level 3, tight enough for the likes of anthrax and plague. Three rooftop greenhouses will give us equivalent capabilities for animal and plant pathogens. We have more than one floor dedicated to bioinformatics and mathematical modeling.
The idea is to give researchers all the tools they need for lab work, genetics and modeling under one roof – whether in the service of basic science or applied field work.
The focus of this interdisciplinary institute is research, so we naturally placed it under the Office of the Vice President for Research. But, in closing, I want to stress that Emerging Pathogens Institute will be anything but ivory tower.
Which brings me back to the flu. One of the Institute's goals is to develop better techniques to make flu vaccines, a feat that would help public health officials head off scenarios like the one we find ourselves in this flu season. That's important not only for traditional flu, which is destructive enough, but also for its lethal cousin, avian flu. This research is also emblematic of the Institute's commitment to work closely with public health officials, a commitment I think you will hear more about shortly.
Emerging pathogens pose a frightening threat to our health, to our environment and to our way of life. Through serving as a home base for the university's myriad research strengths in this area, I am confident the Emerging Pathogens Institute and the Pathogens Research Facility will help us combat this threat.
Thank you.
Bernie Machen